captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> ifill: general john allen, the top u.s. commander in afghanistan, is under investigation for sending messages to a woman linked to the scandal that forced c.i.a. director petraus to resign. good evening. i'm gwen ifill. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. on the newshour tonight, we get the latest on what were termed "potentially inappropriate" e- mails and documents, and we examine if and when the white house and congress should have been alerted. >> ifill: then, the senate and the house of representatives get back to work. judy woodruff looks at the long list of challenges ahead.

>> brown: one item on the agenda is the so-called fiscal cliff , and that was the focus of a white house meeting today with liberal leaders. we talk with two participants. >> ifill: plus, from "our food for nine billion" series, special correspondent mary kay magistad reports on china's moves to satisfy a growing demand for meat. it has transformed lives and diets over the past 30 years meat con suption per cap to has quadrupled and city dwellers eat twice as much meat on average as those in the countryside. >> ifill: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> intel. sponsors of tomorrow. >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation. dedicated to the idea that all

people deserve the chance to live a healthy, productive life. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> brown: the investigation that felled the head of the c.i.a. has expanded, to include a high- ranking u.s. military figure. that news rippled outward from the pentagon today, and across official washington. the name of u.s. marine general john allen, the top american commander in afghanistan, surfaced overnight in the scandal that began friday with david petraeus resigning at c.i.a. director. unnamed defense officials say the military is now

investigating possibly, quote, inappropriate communications between allen and tampa socialite jill kelley. she had reported getting harassing emails from another woman, paula broadwell. the f.b.i. investigation that followed uncovered broadwell's affair with petraeus. but according to the newest revelations, agents also found extensive contacts between kelley and general allen. the f.b.i. notifieded the pentagon on sunday. last night spokesman george little read a statement from defense secretary leon panetta on a flight to australia. >> today the secretary directed that the matter be referred to the inspector general of the department of defense for investigation. it is now in the hands of the department of the secretary-general. >> brown: early news accounts said allen and kelley exchanged 20,000-30,000 pages of emails and other documents over the last two years. for part of that time the general served as deputy commander at u.s. central command faced at the air force

base in tampa. jill kelley and her hus ban often organized social events for the military. one senior defense official said today that the emails between allen and kelley were mostly routine and involved planning for parties. another described them as, quote, flirtatious. for his part allen denied any wrongdoing. the four star general took over command in afghanistan in july of 2011. from then general david petraeus. >> it is my intention to maintain the momentum of this campaign. this great comain on which we have embarked. >> brown: in that role allen is also overseeing the pullout of u.s. combat forces and transition to an afghan takeover of security by 2014. >> what the people of afghanistan want is to be protected by afghans. what the international community wants is for the afghan people to be protected by afghans. that's an important outcome. that is what victory looks like in the fight against the taliban. >> brown: last month allen was nominated for supreme commander

of nato, a role he was expected to assume in the spring. now his confirmation process has been put on hold. pentagon officials say they hope to speed up confirmation of general joseph dunnfordford as allen's successor in afghanistan. at the white house today, press secretary jay carney said president obama still has faith in general allen and is not contemplating shake-ups in his national security team. >> he's focused on

captioning sponsored by wpbt >> this is n.b.r.